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GENI Network Stitching

Session Leader

Tom Lehman, ISI
Aaron Helsinger, GPO

Time

Wed 3:30 - 6 pm

Dial In

866-453-5550
Participant pin: 6513886#

Description

This meeting will strive for consensus on a software architecture
for network stitching in GENI. A key architectural question for
GENI has been how to connect the resources provided by multiple
aggregates into a coherent network. The key objective is to enable
automated and realtime network stitching for slices which span
multiple aggregates. Ethernet VLANs have been identified as the
initial network technology to provide slice level inter-aggregate
connections and isolation. However, there are many architecture and
design decisions still required. These include, how do you select
the VLAN IDs to use and inform all necessary aggregates? How do you
handle external networks which may be in between two GENI Aggregates
of interest? Is the network stitching service a shared service
which coordinates across aggregates, or are aggregates responsible
for coordinating amongst themselves, or a hybrid model? How is
stitching related information described and shared ?

Over the years the community has discussed this in various forums,
and multiple implementations are in use in the community. However,
it is now critical to define an architecture and design which will
enable networking stitching to be generally available within GENI.
In recent weeks that discussion has become more focused and several
key stakeholders have debated various alternatives. This meeting
will include a presentation of a proposed GENI network stitching
architecture and alternatives, and an open community discussion on
these issues.

Proposal

The Stitching workshop, led by Tom Lehman of ISI, outlines a draft architecture for stitching together slices which span multiple aggregates. This proposal is intended to be compatible with at least ProtoGENI, Orca and OpenFlow approaches to stitching. This draft architecture would be fleshed out over coming months, aiming for a demonstration at GEC12.

The proposal envisions two pieces. First the proposal describes aggregate-to-aggregate touch-points in a common RSpec format so that a topology service can support reasoning about potential network paths across GENI. Second a path computation service and a stitching workflow function (which may be centralized, at the client, or within each aggregate) can coordinate reservation of network paths.

This work initially focuses on stitching via VLANs, but is designed for future extension to other technologies as necessary.